New York's subways were under
increased security yesterday after receiving what local officials described
as the most specific threat to date of a terrorist attack in the coming
days.

"This is the first time that we have had a threat
with this level of specificity," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Thursday.
"It was more specific as to target, it was more specific as to timing."

Although the intelligence behind the alert had yet
to be corroborated, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said that it had been
deemed of "sufficient concern" to enhance counter-terrorism operations
on the subway network, as well as buses and ferries.

Officials refused to provide details of the precise
nature of the threat, although Kelly said an existing policy of random searches
on the subway would be intensified, with a particular emphasis on baggage
and baby strollers.

Despite the increased security, subways were running
as normal and New York City remained on the second highest alert level,
where it has been since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

US media quoted Department of Homeland Security officials
as saying they doubted the credibility of the threat.

"The intelligence community has concluded that
this information is of doubtful credibility," the department said in
a statement.

CNN quoted a senior Pentagon official as saying US
troops, acting on the same intelligence, had taken part in a raid south
of Baghdad late Wednesday and rounded up several al-Qaeda operatives.

The head of the FBI's New York field office, Mark Mershon,
said the new threat had been "partially disrupted" but declined
to elaborate beyond confirming that no arrests had been made in the city
itself.

Bloomberg said the warning of the attack had come several
days ago, but a public announcement was delayed.

"There were operations taking place that we thought
were in the interest of ending the threat, and to release the information
earlier could have jeopardized the lives of those conducting those operations,"
he said.

The new warning came just hours after a major speech
on terrorism by US President George W. Bush in which he sought to convince
Americans that Iraq was a central front of the anti-terror campaign.

Bush said the US had foiled three al-Qaeda terror strikes
on its soil since the Sept. 11 attacks, and stopped terror groups casing
US targets and infiltrating operatives into the country.

"Evil men obsessed with ambition and unburdened
by conscience must be taken very seriously and we must stop them before
their crimes multiply," Bush said.

In the immediate wake of the July suicide bombings
on the London transport system that claimed 52 lives, New York flooded its
subway network with police patrols and introduced a policy of random bag
searches.

The New York subway -- fourth largest in the world
in passenger volume -- carries 4.5 million passengers on an average working
day.

"We've never had before a specific threat to our
subway system," Bloomberg said.

"There have been people all the time on the Internet
and every place else, saying you know, `I'm going to go get those guys,'"
he said. "But suffice it to say [this time] its importance was enhanced
above the normal level, by the detail that was available to us," he
said.

In a city that still bears the physical and psychological
scars of the Sept. 11 attack four years ago, the presence of police, anti-terrorist
units and National Guard troopers has become a common feature of subway
travel.

Bloomberg's announcement came in the middle of the
evening rush hour and many subway passengers said that they were unaware
of the new threat.

Others said they had heard the news but felt few qualms
about going home as usual.

"This isn't the first time and it won't
be the last," said Marion Cox, 32, as she prepared to board a downtown
train at Manhattan's Grand Central Station.

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